Food diaries

A couple of days in NYC

I have been on the road touring with Rhiannon Giddens and band for the last couple of weeks, mostly on the east coast of the US. People often think that life on the road equals trying and discovering new exciting restaurants everyday, but unfortunately the opposite is more common. On show days we have very little time to go out for a proper meal after soundcheck. Often catered food is provided by the venue and it ranges from not very good to quite good. Some other times we are just too tired to look for food and we end up eating what’s easiest and nearest. We try to keep a healthy rider in our green room and usually we eat some of that during the day too. For those who don’t know, the “rider” is a list of food and drinks that the venue is supposed to provide per contract and it’s available for you during the day of performance.

Usually the chance for culinary explorations comes when we have a day off in a big city. This time around I was lucky enough to be in NYC for a couple of not super busy days, so I took advantage of it, and visited some favorite spots and discovered a new one.

Classic Tokyo tonkotsu ramen

Tonchin ramen one of my favorite places to eat ramen in NYC these days. Tonchin is a ramen shop that started in Tokyo in the 90’s and more recently expanded to open a few shops in the US. It’s classic tonkotsu ramen, ie a rich pork bone broth simmered for many hours, sometimes days! Their broth is rich and flavourful, but somewhat a bit lighter than usual fare. The noodles are handmade and of the thin wavy kind (classic for this type of ramen). The chashu (braised pork belly) is cut wafer thin, almost like a slice of ham. I have to admit that at first this put me off a little bit as I am more used to the chunky slab of tender pork belly, but once I tasted one of those slices, I was immediately sold as it was incredibly tender and delicious. It felt somewhat lighter than the classic chashu slice and it still had that melt in your mouth feeling.

There are few Ramen options on the menu other than the classic Tokyo style tonkotsu. Last time I was there I had their smoked dashi ramen, which is made with clams and smoked fish oil. It has a rather strong fishy umami flavour profile and it is also incredibly delicious and powerful.

Smoked dashi ramen

I tried some of their pan fried gyoza, which looked quite different from the usual shape, but they were cooked to perfection and very delicious. The best way to cook gyoza in a pan is by gently frying it first, then adding a bit of water and a lid to the pan so the gyoza can steam. After a couple of minutes you can lift the lid and let all the water evaporate. Finally you add a tiny bit of oil and let the crunchy crust develop at the bottom. In this way you have both the benefits of steaming and frying and it’s definitely my preferred cooking method for these type of dumplings.

I was obviously in the mood for everything Japanese (I can’t get any of that in Ireland unfortunately), so later that day I paid visit to my friend chef Jiro from Domo Sushi for dinner. I discovered domo sushi completely by chance a couple of years ago. It is an “omakase” tiny four seats sushi counter experience in the middle of a Chinese food hall in Chinatown. I was in the area and looking for a place to eat and noticed how this place had incredibly high reviews. So I called to book and got a seat for lunch in the hall. Jiro is originally from Hong Kong but he trained and lived in Japan for many years. He runs this very small sushi restaurant with his wife and I think the level and quality of what they offer is really high. It is also incredibly reasonably priced and a much more affordable than most sushi experiences in NYC. I have since become friends with Jiro and his wife and have recommended this place to many people. In case you are not familiar with the concept of “omakase”, it’s a curated menu experience where a sushi chef creates a menu right in front of you on the spot using what’s fresh and seasonal. The meal this time featured three types of uni (sea urchin), oysters, baby squid, caviar, Sardinian bottarga and Italian black truffle!

Baby squid with ikura (salmon roe)

What I love about this place is that it’s located in the least fancy setup for a sushi restaurant ever. It’s basically a food hall with plastic chairs and tables and it’s definitely not the kind of place where you’d expect to have such a high level culinary experience. It’s as unpretentious as it is refined.

Fatty tuna and caviar

Tuna, black truffle

Smoking action!

Chef Jiro with happy customers

Whenever I am in a big city, I consult the Michelin guide for restaurant recommendations. They have a very practical app that shows you on a map all the places near you and links to the restaurant descriptions. You could argue that there is a lot missing from the guide and that the system in which it operates is at best controversial (a little bit like the Grammies I would say), but I personally think that what is there is solid and very rarely I have felt they got it wrong.

Most of the times I am not looking for the fancy Michelin starred restaurants, as they are too expensive and more of a once in a while celebratory experience. I am more interested in their category called “Bib Gourmand”. The Bib Gourmand is a restaurant that has the best value for the money and usually it is a fairly “normal” restaurant with “normal” prices, but with exceptionally high quality food. I have been looking for and eating at “Bib Gourmand” restaurants for a good few years now and there are not a huge amount of them, but they are hardly ever disappointing.

For example the ramen restaurant “Tonchin” here above is a Bib Gourmand restaurant and you can see it here on the Michelin guide map. The bib gourmand symbol is the one with the happy Michelin man face (quite a few bib gourmands in K-Town!).

I read about another restaurant in the same category called Covacha while looking for a lunch spot close to the Beacon theatre (where we performed that night), so I popped in for a quick bite. Covacha is a quirky modern Mexican restaurant with a focus on food from Jalisco but with a contemporary touch. I had some mahi tacos al pastor and a portion of their refried beans. Traditionally “al pastor” are made with pork cooked on a vertical spit after being marinated in achiote and spices, and the dish is finished with pineapple, which adds a touch of acidity and cuts some of the fat mouthfeel. In this somewhat leaner version, the fish was moist and flavourful but it still had a nice bite. The charred salsa was smoky and tangy and I loved their thick corn tortillas. I don’t normally look for Mexican food in NYC but this was indeed very good and I will try to go back to research more of their menu.

I should also mention that whenever I am in the midtown area of Manhattan, I stop for a proper Italian coffee at Zibetto. This is a tiny corridor-like coffee shop, no tables, just a countertop and a few seats outside. It feels like a proper italian coffee experience, one where I don’t need to explain anything, I just order my coffee and what comes is exactly what I’d expect if I was in Italy. Their cappuccino is one of the best I have had in the US and it’s Rhiannon’s favorite. They also have cornetti (italian style criossants) and I am a bit less excited about those but they do hit the spot when in need.

After all this delicious food, we had a fantastic show and an amazing crowd at a sold out Beacon theatre, which was for me a once in a lifetime experience.

These are just a few NYC favorite spots of mine, there are plenty more but maybe I will save them for another post in the future. Let me know your favorite NYC spots and hopefully I will catch you soon somewhere on the road!